Picnic at the gardens of the Grec theatre

A few weekends ago we went to a children birthday in a spectacular site (and free) that I recommend you to visit in family: the gardens of the Grec theatre.

We knew the place like so many people of Barcelona, at night and overflowing with people, because of the summer festival Grec that is one of the most distinguished theatrical events of the city. It was a real discovery to go by day and find out that these gardens are ideal for the small urban explorers.

GREC AMPHITHEATRE
The best thing of the gardens of the Grec theatre, if you go during the day and with children, is the Grec amphitheater itself. This is an old quarry converted in 1929 in an outdoor theater in the style of the ancient Greek theaters. By day, the gardens of the Grec are almost empty, so you can imagine how the children feel when they come and see such a huge and special space only for them. There they can run, jump, and play, go up and down the stairs, jump from the stage into the pit, etc..
You can compare the images of the Amphitheatre in the morning, from our children picnic:

with a photo taken from wikipedia, with the theater packed to the rafters, at night, in one of the performances of the Grec Festival of Barcelona.

THE LOOKOUT

Those of you that you have been in the Grec Festival in summer will know that the lookout area hosts a bar restaurant. Well, the rest of the year the building is empty. At that old Music Pavilion of the Universal Exhibition of 1929 was where we organized the picnic, after requesting permission from Barcelona city council.

Again, compare these two photos. One, with the building by day, completely empty and at our disposal, within which we assembled the picnic tables:

With this picture taken from the blog of In & Out Barcelona (which we love!) with the pavilion transformed into a restaurant for the evenings of July, during the Grec Festival. You want to be there both day and night, right?

ONE OF THE BEST VIEWS OF BARCELONA
The Gardens of Grec is a place with exceptional views of Barcelona: in front, Collserola. Further, Tibidabo and on the right, the Litoral mountains and in the background, Montseny. On the left, we have an exceptional view of the building where it is located the MNAC.

Attention #photohunters of Barcelona, the photos of these gardens, early in the morning, promise (do not take in consideration my photos, that I took with the mobile, and with a strange light). Is anyone in to get up early on a Saturday and take photos with the reflex?

Going on with the picnic, when the little urban explorers were tired of going up and down the stairs of the amphitheater Grec, they discovered that the central garden was ideal to keep running between the beds of herbs and the different varieties of roses.

Before they were called Gardens of the Grec theatre, this place was called Rosaleda Amargós, and it was the second public rose garden that was created in Barcelona.

Several ponds give a spirit of joy to the gardens.

The central gardens are a real orchard. If you stop to look at the vegetation of the place, you can find real surprises: we have already spoken about the roses, but there are jasmines, ivies, grapes, lavenders, orange trees, bougainvilleas, a huge pine, ashes, cypresses, oaks, and a very tall whashingtoniana palm tree.

In the gardens of the Grec theatre we can observe several trees that are part of the Catalog of trees of local interest of Barcelona. (including the tall palm tree that I just mentioned).

The place is unique and full of little corners. This makes it ideal for the little urban explorers from 6 to 14 years, but be especially carefulif you go with young children because you will not be able to take your eyes off them: water tanks, very hilly stairs … Have them under surveillance. The space has a surface of ​​1.65 hectares. It is not a dangerous place but you just have to watch out.

For those who want to visit the gardens of the Grec theatre in family, they are situated in the mountains of Montjuïc, up the Passeig de Santa Madrona, on the left.
And if after the visit to the gardens is about lunchtime, on five minutes walk you can try some of the best tapas in Barcelona at La Cañota. A 100% kids friendly place. You can read the post here.